Fact file

• Including the perimeter of its islands, Portugal boasts 1793 kilometres of coastline. Its only neighbour is Spain, and it shares the same time zone as the UK.

• There are ten times more Portuguese living overseas than the ten million-strong population that lives in Portugal itself – the bulk of these live in Brazil, though the USA and France both also have over a million inhabitants of Portuguese descent.

• Portugal’s national dish is bacalhau, dried and salted cod, and there are reputed to be 365 different ways of cooking it – one for each day of the year.

• Portugal is the earth’s eighth largest producer of wine and supplies fifty percent of the world’s cork.

• There are twelve UNESCO World Heritage Sites in mainland Portugal, including towns like Évora and Guimarães, the palaces of Sintra, rock art in the Côa valley, and national monuments at Batalha and Alcobaça.